Minnie G.—A Brazilian silver milreis, or one thousand reis, is worth about fifty-one cents, United States currency. The face value of a ten-reis postage stamp is about half a cent.—Cancelled stamps are commonly used in exchange by our correspondents, as new ones are difficult to obtain, especially those of foreign countries.
A. A. Y. C.—The cost of material for sail-boat described in Young People No. 66 is about fifteen dollars. For the other information you require, go to the foot of Court Street, Brooklyn, in which city you live, and talk with the boatmen and boat-builders there.
J. M.—A new boat like the one you describe will cost from seventy-five to one hundred dollars. You may be able to obtain one second-hand in good condition for half that sum. The expense of starting a club would depend entirely upon the outlay to which the members mutually agree. It might be confined to the price of your boat and rowing suits, and the rent of some place to store your boat.
John T.—A note from Mr. Casey, containing his address and a kind offer to reply to correspondents, was printed in the Post-office Box of Harper's Young People No. 61.
Willie B. S.—When the Colonial Congress was in session in Philadelphia in 1774 a motion was made to open the proceedings with prayer. It was opposed on the ground that as the members belonged to different denominations, they would be unable to join in the same act of worship. But Mr. Samuel Adams, who was a strict Presbyterian, said he could listen to a prayer from a gentleman of piety and virtue who was at the same time a friend to his country, and named Mr. Jacob Duché, an Episcopal clergyman of Philadelphia, as such a person. The motion was then passed, and Mr. Duché appeared the next morning, and officiated with great fervor. He subsequently became a traitor to his country, and even attempted to persuade Washington to desert to the British.